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Avsalon's Drinking Horn, named for Bishop Absalon due to an incorrect tradition that he was its first owner, is a 72 cm long 14th-century
The horn is from European bison and its length measures 72.2 cm with a diameter is 15.5 cm. The silver mount of the rim measures 5 cm and is without ornamentation. Below it is an engraved frieze from the beginning of the 16th century with the coat of arms of the Tornekrans. Below the trim mount is also an
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Medieval European objects in the National Museum of Denmark 14th-century works Drinkware Drinking horns
drinking horn
A drinking horn is the horn of a bovid used as a drinking vessel. Drinking horns are known from Classical Antiquity, especially the Balkans, and remained in use for ceremonial purposes throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period in ...
, with silver mountings, two of which were added in the 15th and early 16th centuries, now in the collection of the National Museum of Denmark.
History
The drinking horn dates from the 14th century and comes from theCistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
Sorø Abbey
Sorø Abbey was the preeminent and wealthiest monastic house in all of Denmark during the Middle Ages. It was located in the town of Sorø in central Zealand.
After Denmark became Lutheran in 1536, the abbey was confiscated by the Crown. The ab ...
. The incorrect tradition that it has belonged to Bishop Absalon may come from Henrik Tornekrans, its last Catholic abbot. It is first mentioned in the records of the Royal Danish Treasury in 1696. In 1845, it was transferred to the new National Museum of Denmark.
Description
The horn is from European bison and its length measures 72.2 cm with a diameter is 15.5 cm. The silver mount of the rim measures 5 cm and is without ornamentation. Below it is an engraved frieze from the beginning of the 16th century with the coat of arms of the Tornekrans. Below the trim mount is also an escutcheon
Escutcheon may refer to:
* Escutcheon (heraldry), a shield or shield-shaped emblem, displaying a coat of arms
* Escutcheon (furniture), a metal plate that surrounds a keyhole or lock cylinder on a door
* (in medicine) the distribution of pubic ha ...
coat of arms from around 1400, depicting an abbot in a stylized garden. There are traces of a now-lost silver mount on the tip of the horn. On a drawing from 1696 of "Absalons belongings" (Sorø), it can be seen with the tip fixture still there.
See also
*Oldenburg Horn
The Oldenburg Horn () is a mid 15th-century drinking horn with House of Oldenburg associations, made of gilded silver richly decorated with enamel, now on display in Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark.
History
In the 13th and 14th centurie ...
References
Further reading
* Etting, Vivian: ''The Story of the Drinking Horn - Drinking Culture in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages'',Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2013.External links
{{Commons category, Absalon's Drinking HornSource
Source
Medieval European objects in the National Museum of Denmark 14th-century works Drinkware Drinking horns